Dutch and British wholesale gas prices fell for the third consecutive trading session on Wednesday morning on healthy inventories and improved Norwegian supply.

The benchmark front-month Dutch contract fell by 2.09 euros to 28.10 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), while the day-ahead contract TRNLTTFD1 was down by 0.96 euros to 27.80 euros/MWh, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.

The September contract was down 1.60 euros at 29.55 euros/MWh.

The British Q1 2024 contract fell by 12.00 pence to 127.00 pence per therm.

“Prices are (pricing in) getting Norway’s Troll and Nychamna (gas facilities) back, but any delays would cause them to jump back to 35 at least,” a European gas trader said.

Refinitiv analyst Tomasz Marcin Kowalski said that the completion of ongoing maintenance work at the Troll gas field is expected to be completed tomorrow, which would restore 21.5 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) of production.

The Nyhamna gas processing plant is also expected to return to service on July 15, which would restore 79.8 mcm/d of production capacity, but any extension of this maintenance would be a bullish signal for the markets, Kowalski added.

European gas storage facilities are around 80% full and look set to be completely full ahead of the winter season.

“The past weeks’ spike of European natural gas prices looks set to be temporary,” said from Norbert Rücker, Head Economics and Next Generation Research at investment bank Julius Baer.

“Norwegian gas flows have improved and demand from power plants and chemicals operations remains soft. In fact, the supply situation almost seems too good, and storage is at risk of hitting capacity constraints after the summer,” he added.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 edged up by 1.10 euro to 87.84 euros a tonne.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Marwa Rashad; Editing by Nina Chestney)